Solar Deicing Nanocoatings Adaptive to Overhead Power Lines

In frigid winter, the ice and snow built-up on high-voltage overhead power lines may seriously risk the reliability of electric power transmission and telecommunication systems. Green technologies for power line deicing that can effectively remove the accumulated ice or snow on the cables in a gentle way are highly desired but technically challenging due to the complex cable surfaces. Herein, this work reports a scalable solar-thermal icephobic nanocoating compatible with both flat and complex curved surfaces. The spray-coated nanocoating comprises a titanium nitride nanoparticle layer as a low-emissivity photo-thermal medium and dual-scale silica particles as a water-repellent layer even at low temperatures. Enabled by the collective effects of high-efficiency solar-thermal conversion and temperature-insensitive superhydrophobicity, the nanocoating realizes effective deicing/defrosting on power lines at frigid temperatures down to −15 °C. The versatility of this coating and its compatibility with mass-production processes render passive solar-driven deicing technologies promising for practical applications on most outdoor exposed surfaces.